S UMM E R 2 0 2 2 | 3 3 “Virtual reality is where you’re leaving this physical world and entering a new, wholly diferent space,” he said. The virtual reality experience is achieved with headsets designed to replace the user’s surroundings with something created in software. There are gyroscopic sensors, accelerators and magnetometers in headsets to determine how the user moves and to track their interactions in the virtual space, according to the publication XR Today. “The experience is a lot diferent than a lecture in the classroom, or even just seeing regular 2D videos,” Sakasitz said. “When you are immersed in something, it’s a completely diferent learning experience. You can take students to places you’ve never been able to take them before, whether it’s a virtual feld trip to Egypt to look at pyramids or to a hospital to see surgery done in real time,” he said. In 2015, CITL opened its visualization lab on the third foor of the E.W. Fairchild-Martindale Library, Reihman said. The lab has hosted small groups and large classes where students come in one at a time for a VR experience. Some of those projects included an earth and environmental science class studying the geography of the Underground Railroad and how it afected the movement of enslaved people going north, and a biological sciences class tour through the circulatory system, which Jones Taylor, a social psychologist and included a ride through the blood vessels. assistant professor at Lehigh with a joint ALEC BODZIN Immersive learning has recently start- appointment in psychology and Afri- Bodzin’s team ed to transition from a small-scale experi- cana studies. Taylor’s research focuses mentation to a multi-million-dollar market created interactive on identity-related questions and interthat’s rapidly growing, according to a recent games for K-12 group interactions. She is using VR to article published by the Information Tech- improve interracial interactions and to students about nology & Innovation Foundation. help improve the diversity of those in the the Lehigh River In addition to ofering new types of ex- STEM feld. periences for all learners, AR and VR tools Watershed and Xiaoji (George) Xu, an associate procan improve overall learning outcomes for environmental topics fessor of chemistry, set up a 360-degree students. Immersive experiences have been camera to livestream chemistry lab ac- such as fooding, shown to encourage higher engagement tivities to remote students using immerand improve memory recall for complex climate change sive VR headsets through the Mountainor abstract topics, such as STEM (science, and the efects of top program. technology, engineering and mathematics), The Ofce of Creative Inquiry sup- zinc smelting in the subjects that often rely on two-dimension- ports projects that are interdisci- Lehigh Gap area. al representations of otherwise intangible plinary and innovation driven, that concepts, the article says. don’t ft in a typical research lab set- “At the end of the day, there’s a new technology that ting, said Bill Whitney, the ofce’s administrative emerged from our broader culture, and it impacts howwe director. do what we do,” Reihman said. “One of the things we do is “The Ofce of Creative Inquiry is always looking for teaching, so we want to ask the question of, how can we VR projects like the ones we have now that ft the mold use this technology to enhance the student experience?” of the projects we want to support, which are multi-year projects that have goals of large-scale systemic change,” Whitney said. Support for XR Alec Bodzin, professor of instructional technology Projects that started as part of the Mountaintop Sum- and teacher education, and his team, which includes mer Experience, a 10-week program that encourages Thomas Hammond, associate professor of instructionstudents to take a deep dive into an interdisciplinary, al technology and teacher education, and David Anasimpact-focused project, include the work of Valerie tasio, professor of earth and environmental sciences, S P R I N G
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